We now know that this essay is Leon Wieseltier?s farewell address to the readers of The New Republic. Wieseltier served as its literary editor from 1983 until last week, which means that his sensibility pervaded the nation?s pre-eminent cultural pages for nearly a third of a century. A few weeks after this essay was published, the magazine?s owner and its new CEO. made the deeply misguided decision to force Wieseltier's resignation, as well as editor Frank Foer's, prompting the departure of most of the rest of the staff (including me). In a characteristic series of grand pronouncements, Wieseltier calls for a ferocity of argument and independence of reasoning vigorous enough to unshackle public opinion from propaganda. But what he?s really up to, I think, is fighting back against the callow entrepreneurialism that was about to destroy his magazine.